The Technology Qualification certificate was signed in the presence of the British Ambassador to Denmark, HE Ms. Vivien Life, at the British Embassy in Copenhagen, from left: Per Langer, Chairman of AW-Energy; Christopher Ridgewell, Chief Technology Officer of AW-Energy; John Liljelund, CEO of AW-Energy; Thomas Thune Andersen, Chairman of Lloyd’s Register; HE Vivien Life, the British Ambassador to Denmark; Ross Wigg, Vice-President Renewables of Lloyd’s Register (photo: Lloyd’ Register)

Following more than two years of co-operation, Lloyd’s Register has awarded its first Technology Qualification certificate to a developer of ocean energy technology, AW-Energy in Finland – a provider of near-shore wave energy generation.

The Technology Qualification certificate was presented in person by the Chairman of Lloyd’s Register, Thomas Thune Andersen, to the CEO of AW-Energy, John Liljelund, and in the presence of the British Ambassador to Denmark, HE Vivien Life, at the British Embassy in Copenhagen.

AW-Energy’s Chairman of the Board, Per Langer, says, “I have seen that this has been very challenging, but a valuable process, so I am very excited to announce that WaveRoller® has been awarded the Technology Qualification certificate, and the first ocean energy converter to reach this level of validation by Lloyd’s Register.”

Wave energy is a significant untapped resource of clean renewable energy globally, with a potential greater than the capacity of all the installed fossil fuel plants in Europe combined. Waves are a predictable source of energy, and can make a valuable contribution to the commercial mix of renewable energy; power generation from wave energy will soon be bankable with the qualified WaveRoller® technology.

“As the British Ambassador to Denmark I am delighted to witness the signing of the Technology Qualification certificate, which opens the door for wide scale commercial deployment of Scandinavian wave energy solutions globally,” says the British Ambassador to Denmark, HE Vivien Life. “The WaveRoller® technology not only offers a novel and previously untapped source of renewable energy; it has minimal visual impact and it even creates artificial basis for reef ecosystems to flourish. Companies like AW-Energy are the key players in this new era of energy innovation and which increasingly focuses on clean technology solutions for global sustainability challenges. Encouraging cooperation in developing renewable energy solutions between the UK and Scandinavia has been a key part of my role here. So we were honoured to host AW-Energy and Lloyd’s Register with their teams at the Embassy.”

AW-Energy has been developing WaveRoller® technology for over 15 years and the engineering team since early 2014 has cooperated with Lloyd’s Register on the Technology Qualification process for certification.

“Technology Qualification is a detailed goal-based approach to risk that has allowed AW-Energy to identify and mitigate risks and weaknesses in the design throughout the innovation process for the prototype deployment in Peniche,” highlights Christopher Ridgewell, Chief Technology Officer at AW-Energy. “Lloyd’s Register’s team of highly experienced engineers supported the development of our project from the outset and challenged the design to validate key goals in safety, reliability and availability for the unit.”

Lloyd’s Register’s Technology Qualification has a major role to play in relatively young and new components, processes or systems with a lack of historical data.

Commenting on the process Ross Wigg, VP Renewables at Lloyd’s Register highlights, “The technologies that are to be commercialised in ocean energy, in renewables and across the energy mix, can be both emerging technologies and technology that is unproven on a large industrial scale. Our approach supports a better way for technology developers to manage costs and the associated risks of bringing new technology to market.”

Working to rigorous technical standards in collaboration with Lloyd’s Register, AW-Energy is committed to follow best practice from corresponding industries. Its WaveRoller® product is a near shore wave energy converter, mounted to the seabed with a panel that oscillates with the wave surge. It paves the way to commercialisation for the wave energy industry and with on-going projects in Portugal, Ireland, France, and Chile, AW-Energy expects to see rapid growth in the next few years for its WaveRoller® product as governments, operators and geo-energy policy collectively strive for cleaner and more sustainable power generation solutions.

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